Eleanor Clift did a fantastic job speaking this afternoon at the January Series. I appreciated her touching on the major candidates, but not seeming to lean towards one or the other. She was also quite humorous which made listening to her all the more enjoyable.
One particular point that she made ties into a one of my previous blogs entitled “Ugly Politics”. She said that Obama winning Iowa is a significant turning point in this Nation’s history. This is due to the fact that Iowa is over 90% white and Obama, though bi-racial, is identified as an African American. Though I have rather conservative republican ideals, I am proud that race would not be an issue. As mentioned in my previous blog, one of the news casters implied that race was going to be an issue. I hope he is wrong, and so far the polls are proving that he is.
One a little different note, recently Obama talked about religion and its role in all of this. http://liberalvaluesblog.com/?p=2678 This is the site if you would like to read exactly what he said. One thing that stood out for me is “Whatever we once were, we’re no longer just a Christian nation; we are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation, and a nation of non-believers. We should acknowledge this and realize that when we’re formulating policies from the state house to the Senate floor to the White House, we’ve got to work to translate our reasoning into values that are accessible to every one of our citizens, not just members of our own faith community.” I don’t quite agree with his statement implying that that we are no longer the nation that we once were religiously. This nation was founded by primarily Protestants as a country with religious freedom. I believe that same freedom still exists today.
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2 comments:
I'd like to agree with you on both points you made.
1. Obama's victory in Iowa, though not a clear indicator of the situation nationwide, is a hopeful sign that race is not as big of an issue in politics as it might have been in the past.
2. Obama's statement is at best misguided by his intentions to be politically correct and at worst erroneous as a consequence of his lack of understanding of the various worldviews he invokes and of the American nation.
I too like Eleanor's talk yesterday- I thought she did a good job of analyzing the candidates and in providing substantial information about each. I think it was best that she didn't tell everyone who they should be voting for, because it is a personal decision and one that needs to have much personal thought.
About Obama's comment, I don't believe he is saying that our freedom has changed; instead, he believes that the religious beliefs of our country have greatly changed. I don't think "we are the nation we once were religiously", as you stated. Times have greatly changed-not many years ago families went to church together and God played a much larger role in peoples lives. Nowadays, churchgoers and christianity are greatly decreasing in the USA.
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